gives the secret of a self-control that never breaks down ; and the love and devotion are continuously fed by the Spirit of the Father (Mt 10=», Jn 16"). By the forgiveness of sins Christ sets the will free from bondage to past evil, and His Spirit, ruling in the life because in the heart, becomes an un- failing source of strength and peace, reproducing in mortal experience the self-control of Him who never wavered from duty, or yielded to temptation, or allowed the Kingdom within to be disturbed by a breacli of will between Himself and the Father. His self-control, in its completeness and in its means, is the measure and guarantee of Avhat is possible to man. See also art. Temperance.
Literature. — The Lexx. of Grimm-Thayer and Liddell and Scott, s.vv. a.%px.ffia., iyxpocTiix. ; Aristotle, Etli. bk. vii. ; Marten- sen, Chr. Eth. ii. 411 ; C. E. Searle in Camh. Serm. (ed. Bebb), 1893, p. 70 ; J. Iverach, The Other Side of Greatness (1906), 109.
R. W. Moss. SELF-DENIAL.— Self-denial is undoubtedly an essential part of the religious life as set before men by Jesus Christ. ' If any man will come after me, let him deny himself (Mt IG^*). The word used {dirapv^ofMai) occurs elsewhere only in the parallel passages (Mk S'*'*, Lk 9-^) ; in the accounts given by the four Evangelists of St. Peter's denial
SELF-DENIAL
SELF-E X AMINATIOX
599
(Mt 26»^- ^5- ^^ Mk Rs^-si-^a, Lk 226i, Jn 13^8) ; and in our Lord's denunciation of apostasy (Lk 12^). It is used in the LXX to tr. dxs. It is a strong word, and its meaning is best understood perhaps by comparing it with the corresponding expression of St. Paul, ' I count as loss ' (Tjyrjfiai. ^Tj/xiav, Fh S'- ^). It must be understood to include a conquest of the insistent and unruly demands of the body, denial of the lower self ; and a bringing into subjection of the ambitions and emotions of the intellect and spirit, denial of the higher self.
1. The denial of the carnal self. — The prac- tices by which men have sought to accomplish this kind of self-denial pass generally under the name of asceticism. There are five such kinds of discipline recommended or countenanced by our Lord's teaching and example: (1) fasting, (2) celibacy and sexual restraint, (3) almsgiving, (4) vigils, (5) the refusal of luxury in the sur- roundings of life.
(1) Fasting was practised by our Lord Himself (Mt 41'''- II). It was presupposed as likely to form part of the religious life hj His disciples (Mt 6'®"'-, Mk 2-"). It was practised by the Apostles and the Church in their time f Ac lO'-'-^'o 13* 142^, i Co 7^), and traditions of the severity of their fasting survived into the 2nd cent. (Clem. Recog. vii. 6; Clem. Alex. Pcedag. ii. 1 ; Can. Murat. i. 11). In the sub-Apostolic age, probably as a result of the example of the Pharisees, fasting on stated days became a common form of self - denial (Did. viii. ; Hermas, Sim. v. 1 ; Clem. Alex. Strom, vii. 12). The Lenten fast grew from an original 14 days (Tertull. de Jcjun. 15) to 40 days, in imitation of our Lord's fast in the wilderness. The Friday fast, the Lenten fast, and the custom of fasting before receiving the Communion, were very general, if not universal, in the early Catholic and the mediaeval Cimrch. See art. Fasting.
(2) Celibacy is countenanced by our Lord, but not generally recommended (Mt 19^^, Lk 14^^). It and temporary sexual' restraint are recommended and even deemed specially honourable' by the Apostles (1 Co 729-35, RevU*-^). In the sub- Apostolic age the idea of the superior sanctity of the virgin state grew rapidly (Did. xi. 11 ; Ignat. Ep. ad Polyc. v. ; Just. Mart. Apol. i. 15 ; Athenag. 33, etc.). See art. Celibacy.
(3) Almsgiving, as a form of self-denial, is dis- tinctly recommended by our Lord (Mt &^-, Lk 11^' 12^3, Mk 12« ; cf. Lk 6^8, Mt 5^^, Ac 2035), and He Himself, though poor, practised it (Jn IS^"). The Apostles insisted on the duty of almsgiving, at hrst apparently indiscriminately (Ac 2^*- ■'5), after- wards with more caution (Ro 12^, 2 Co 8^, Ja 2"*-,
1 Jn 3", He 13'6, Ja T-^, 2 Co QS- \ Gal &, 1 Co W,
2 Co 91, Ro 1526, Ac 1127-30. cf. 2 Th 31"). In the early Church, almsgiving, either weekly or monthly, was a recognized duty (Tertull. Apol. 39 ; Cypr. de Oper. et Eleem.). See Almsgiving.
(4) Vigils. — Watching and wakefulness as a form of self-denying service to God were no doubt suggested by our Lord's commands (Mt 24*2 264i, Lk 1237) as well as by His own practice (Mt 1423 2638), and in this sense were understood many of tiie Apostolic exhortations (1 Co 16^3, 1 Tli S**, Eph 6'8). Examples of vigil services are to be found in the records of the Apostolic Churcli (Ac 12'2 20^) and in the practice of St. Paul (2 Co 65 1127). The heathen Pliny's description (Ep. X. 97) of the Christians as 'meeting before daybreak ' probably points to nothing but a desire for privacy and a feeling of the necessity for avoiding public notice, but we have certainly allusions to vigils in the strict sense of the word in the writings of several of the early Fathers (Clem. Alex. Pwdag. ii. 9; Tertull. ad Ux. ii. 5; Cypr. de Laps. 34 ff. ; Lactant. vii. 19; August. Ep. ad